They’re the sister chain to Darty now, if you know them, they’ve been closing bricks and mortar like everyone and pushing online but they still have a couple of hundred stores I think, books, music, games consoles, small electronics, that sort of thing. Used to be part of Kering, they of the Gucci, Balenciaga, Alexander McQueen, YSL luxury brands, but was spun out some time ago. Fnac is another of france’s many acronyms if I recall, Federation of numpties and crackpots maybe, I dunno. I’ve never had any issues with them, their efficiency is ‘French efficiency’ rather than Amazon sort of thing, but I quite like them.
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Fedération nationale d’achat des cadres. Great in the late 70s and 80s, I bought my first very technical walkman there in the huge one in Les Halles.
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I got the first word right at least 
I’ve got about 30 books about France and the resistance and Vichy mostly in French…some very good ones are published with pictures and a detailed commentary alongside which i can manage even with poorish French.
Very very few are bilingual and those that are tend to be guide books
Histoire & Collections aka H&C have done a few bilingual but they are generally expensive €35
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+1 on FNAC. Used to be good for CD’s. Unfortunately got bought and sold twice? since it got into financial trouble. Used to be almost a cultural thing?
If making a big purchase especially towards the end of the year, check if they’ve got an offer on their membership card. Sometimes it will get you a discount of more than it costs. Not sure if they still do 10% off with it around the first weekend of December but they used to. I still carry my old card around, and they’ve still got my data right back to when I first joined last century.
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Thank you very much @KarenLot @kirsteastevenson @JaneJones and @vero I know so little about the commercial life in this country apart from the little local shops of course and the supermarket chains. I knew about Darty but I shall add Fnac to the list of “things to look at”
When I was younger FNAC was a bit of an institution… like Vero I used to go to the one in Les Halles as that and Gilbert Jeune (which sadly closed for good last month) had good ranges. So I remain loyal. But these days I guess it is just another shop…
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But it isn’t Amazon, which is a plus!
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Interestingly one of the things you’ve been able to order from FNAC since March, is an electric car. Well… a voiture sans permis type electric.
If you live in Paris, the subsidies mean it’s pocket money.
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I have had my eyes on one of those for a while @KarenLot - it’s my fall-back position in case the licence exchange thingy doesn’t work before mine expires… 
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What a very good idea.
I’ve been reading recently on automoto site about how strong France is in the “VSP” (Voitures sans Permis) sector. Apparently there is Ligier, Aixam, Chatenet, Microcar and some others all doing well.
Apparently the market is :
- posh/wealthy/trendy/spoiled 14 year olds given them by their parents to go to school
- older people especially rural
-people who’ve lost their licences due to alcohol offences
- and now the British who can’t get our governments to agree a licence swap.
That explains the number of small vehicles in our local supermarket that go slow and sound like lawnmowers then 
And now we have a silent version… the Citroen Ami. On a cold January morning will its range due to the cold be about 50 miles before the battery goes flat?
I’m also looking at the Dacia Spring is anybody else?
I’ve used the Fnac web site several times and found it works very well. The progress of the order is communicated clearly. Barnier’s book came a day late and the info in my online account told me what was happening at each step of the way.
I ordered it from Fnac as soon as Amazon told me they didn’t have it yet with no idea of a new date.
They would rather walk, vsp are so uncool, what you need is a trail bike or a scooter. Lots of old people esp women who never got a licence and find themselves widowed get them so they can continue to stay at home.
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Good job some of us aren’t bothered about being cool then
We talked about electric bikes and the like but I’d rather have something with a lid on it given the amount of rain we usually get up here…
I agree with @KarenLot about the lawnmower parallel. I really don’t like the usual diesel ones but at least they don’t have the range limitation of the Ami. I think 50 miles is an absolute maximum on range but there are charging points in every village car park around here (and also places like Lidl) so possible to charge up again for the trip back.
As I’m looking at a VSP, the Dacia Spring wouldn’t work for me and, in any case, isn’t available until October. If you get one, Karen, let us know how you get on
I don’t think any of us are 14 or at lycée though 
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Well… perhaps just a tad older than that 
Darty sa was owned by Kingfisher Plc in the 1990s who also owned Comet at the time and so created Kelsa group which was the renamed Darty plc and eventually merged with FNAC to create the present organisation,
I ordered this book. Just perfect for our French study and so entertaining.
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That is the legal position, I was referring to hearts and minds…